You Play, You Pay

Even family-oriented video games have a down side.

Video games will do your personal development no major favors — and that goes for the gentle varieties, not just the violent. In fact, a recent study of college students at Brigham Young University found a correlation between heavy “gaming” and weak relationships, not to mention risky behaviors such as drug use. “I was a little surprised the video games’ effects were consistently negative,” lead author Laura Walker, a professor in BYU’s School of Family Life, told The Salt Lake Tribune. “But there were no hugely strong effects. I was surprised that we could find no positive correlations, like for video games that you play as a group.”